Spotify is showing no signs of slowing down in its commitment to podcasts. The streaming service now offers a new feature that lets you rate a podcast once you've listened to it, and see the average rating for other podcasts.

Why Has Spotify Added Podcast Ratings?

Previously, listening to a new podcast on Spotify was a bit of an unknown. Spotify's podcast recommendation algorithm is funky at best. While you could use Spotify's podcast charts, you often had to turn elsewhere for reviews and opinions on shows.

Now, as announced on For the Record, Spotify has rolled out ratings for podcasts. After finishing a show, you can give the podcast a star rating between one and five. The average rating displays on the podcast's page, alongside the total number of ratings.

rating a podcast on spotify
Image Credit: Spotify

This means you can quickly see at a glance what the public perception of a podcast is. According to Spotify, this makes it easier for you to decide what your next listen should be, and the ratings "will serve as the first chance to draw new listeners in".

What Impact Will Ratings Have on Podcasts?

The ability to rate a podcast isn't exactly a groundbreaking feature; many podcast apps and other streaming services, like Apple Music, have offered it for a long time.

Nevertheless, Spotify is pushing podcasts heavily; investing millions of dollars and making them prominent within the app. As such, ratings will help the audience separate the wheat from the chaff.

It'll aid the creators too—they can get immediate, digestible feedback on what their audience-at-large thinks of their podcast.

But is this a good thing? It's unlikely that someone will listen to multiple episodes of a podcast if they hate it, which means only the fans will remain, and they're likely to rate highly. It could lead to skewed ratings.

Equally, we could see a situation where creators with opposing views are barraged by trolls and rated poorly. That's supposedly the reason why YouTube removed public dislikes from its platform.

Spotify's Podcasts Are Here to Stay

Regardless of the potential abuse or feedback loop, it's great to see podcast ratings arrive on Spotify. It's a simple feature, but one that greatly aids with discoverability.

Let's just hope that Spotify doesn't forget its music roots entirely.